Report: LGBT Community Less Likely to Own Homes

A new report issued by Freddie Mac has determined that members of the LGBT community were less likely to own a home than the wider population.

In its report that polled 2,313 LGBT adults, Freddie Mac found that 49 percent of LGBT households said they were likely to own a home, a much lower rate than the national level of 64.3 percent. Within the community, gay men and lesbians said they were the most likely to own (52 percent), while LGBT African-Americans (30 percent) and LGBT Millennials (23 percent) were less likely to become homeowners. Still, three-quarters of LGBT renters agreed that homeownership was a good financial investment and 72 percent of renters said they want to own a home in the future.

As for the reasons behind the lower homeownership rate, 67 percent of survey respondents said they did not live in the same area in which they were raised. Forty-six percent of LGBT renters said they were afraid of encountering discrimination in the homebuying process—the Fair Housing Act does not extend its protections to discrimination to sexual orientation.

“We fielded this survey to get a better understanding of the current challenges facing the LGBT community, as well as their current housing choices, preferences, experiences and aspirations,” said Danny Gardner, senior vice president of affordable lending and access to credit at Freddie Mac. “What we found was that several factors—including increased mobility, lower marriage and a tendency to live in high-cost urban areas, and fears of discrimination—may be contributing to these lower homeownership rates.”